Permanently installed battery tender

Since my truck sits for awhile at a time, and it seems to have a parasitic battery drain, I decided to install a permanently mounted battery maintainer. I read some good reviews on this one, of guys having them installed on their jet boats. So far so good! Fully charged my completely dead battery in a few days, now it sits maintained and ready to go.
https://no.co/gen5x1
(I have some other noco chargers for dirtbike % street bike with the quick connect ends, but I wanted just a 3 prong plug hanging out the bumped instead)

 

I thought that was called an alternator...

 

On my off-road 86 Bronco, I installed a battery cutoff. No parasitic drain, battery always topped off. Just gotta remember to turn the power on\off. Also a good theft deterent..

 

Whatever works for you @tyler-brown is fine with me..

 

parasitics suck, easy enough with a meter, just a pain in the ass

 

true true

 

Yes, good point for a seldom driven vehicle..
I missed that post..

 

Nice work. I have a car with an on-board charger plugged in 24/7. I'd like to drive it more but the last time the wheels rotated was November? October? For my two motorcycles they're always plugged in as well. There's enough to worry about, dead batteries shouldn't be one of those things.

 

i've been wanting to get a dual bank battery tender.. one for my spare battery i keep around in case i have a battery fail and the other bank for the tundra. i dont drive it a ton because well.. its an expensive daily if you drive a fair bit.

 

Preach.

 

Nice! I was thinking of going this route, but with this truck sitting, 2,3,4 months sometimes, batteries just seem to go dead after that long.

Heck ya! You get it. Maintainers are cheap. Dead batteries aren't. Also drastically increases the life of them.

 

I assume the cables were long enough to reach the battery, or did you have to lengthen the leads??

 

Yessir, connected to the battery than ran along between the rad & front of the truck.
The plug-in is plenty long enough to go around the air box, and down through the grill

 

Good to know...

 

use the same charger to keep my AGM battery topped off.
I left a plug by the battery so i just connect it to the charger

 

What was your reason for choosing an Onboard vs just putting a quick connect on the battery and using a regular Noco?
Both require a cable to run to shore power (120V)

 

I have the quick connects on my bikes, and where I keep standby batteries, and they work great. but they all have their own dedicated charger. So for this truck, I needed to buy its own maintainer anyways. So I figured why not one that could stay with the truck, I can poke the 3 prong cord through the bumper like a block heater cord, and I don't have to keep the hood open, or open the hood to hook it up/disconnect it. I also than don't need to just keep the charger in the glove box of the truck. Or on the bench in the shop.
Also I wanted to do a test run and see how well this product works. I would ideally like to install one on my diesel as well for when I go away to work, and the weather drops to -40°c. Having a charged & maintained battery is cheap insurance. Haha.

 

For the car I installed an on-board charger on, I did it just so the charger is always with the car. All I need is an extension cord to charge it and there's no messing with a charger. If a charger is needed for multiple batteries or there isn't plenty of surplus space like on a motorcycle this approach doesn't make as much sense.

 

Appreciate the insight @jimf909 & @tyler-brown

The simplicity of only having to plug in120v away from home makes sense. No worries of securing or storing a charger on the road is definitely a plus.
I snake a Noco extension line through the fender-well so the hood is shut/ locked when at home. It does require me to park close to the garage since the charger is inside the garage.
The disadvantage is still opening the hood with snow on it to dis-connect.
Appreciate the different perspective.

 

Here is an option for not having to open the hood. Could mount somewhere on the exterior of the truck. Fender well, bumper valance?

 

A few weeks ago someone did that on a thread from 2018.

 

A little historical perspective every once in a while is a good thing.